Alternative Offences and Defences to Murder: An International Perspective

Over the past three decades, the operation of the partial defence of provocation has attracted significant community attention, scholarly debate and political interest in an international range of jurisdictions. In fact, it is difficult to locate a jurisdiction that has not confronted to some extent the problem of provocation, as multiple criminal jurisdictions have conducted reviews of the partial defences to murder, and implemented reforms targeted at minimising the influence of gender bias in the operation of the provocation defence. However, what is unique is that in attempting to solve the problems that arise in the operation of the provocation defence, international jurisdictions have pursued divergent approaches to reforming the law of provocation: broadly, oriented around its abolition, its replacement or its retention. It is these divergent approaches to reforming provocation and the intended and unintended consequences of each that are the focus of this book, which provides a much-needed comparative analysis of the effects of those reforms; offering valuable insights, analysis and law reform strategies for comparable jurisdictions that seek to address the problem of provocation in the future.